Memphis Story Wins Oscar

“I won’t lie, there’s a big element of luck in the industry. Right place, right time, right project.”
T.J. Martin
Oscar-winning co-director of Undefeated

“[Undefeated] is a coming-of age film where North Memphis just happens to be the backdrop.”
T.J. Martin

Co-Directors Daniel Lindsay and T.J. Martin won the 2012 Best Documentary Feature for their film Undefeated. The doc centers around a an inner-city football team trying to lose its losing ways. Manassas High School in North Memphis, Tennessee to be exact. (Another unlikely place.) Roger Ebert’s review said, “This story is similar to “Hoop Dreams” (1994), but “Undefeated” centers on the coach, not the players.”

Martin in speaking to a group from the college where he graduated from in Washington state gave an inspirational speech fitting of a high school football coach;

“Embrace failure. I wish someone could’ve told me that. You are going to experience failure many times before you experience success. It’s part of the process.”
T.J. Martin
Oscar-winning alum TJ Martin visits WWU’s Fairhaven College 

Martin also happens to be the first African-American to win an Oscar for directing.

P.S. Oddly enough, another film set in the Memphis area (West Memphis, Arkansas across the Mississippi from Memphis) was also one of the five films nominated for a best documentary Oscar.  Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory was directed by Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky.

Scott W. Smith